Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules ADA applies to websites & apps

On January 15, 2019 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave a big win to digital accessibility in a case against Domino’s Pizza. The lower court had ruled for Domino’s and tossed the case out of court. The appeals court reversed, ruling that the ADA covers websites and mobile applications and the case can stay in court.

The panel of three judges held that: "the ADA applied to Domino’s website and app because the Act mandates that places of public accommodation, like Domino’s, provide auxiliary aids and services to make visual materials available to individuals who are blind. Court Summary of Domino’s Pizza opinion." The judges rejected Domino’s argument that the absence of regulations specifically requiring web accessibility or referencing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines doomed the case.

The case will now go back to the lower federal court in California. As the appellate judges concluded, “We leave it to the district court, after discovery, to decide in the first instance whether Domino’s website and app provide the blind with effective communication and full and equal enjoyment of its products and services as the ADA mandates.”